Faithfulness is consecration in overalls. It is the steady acceptance and performance of the common duty and immediate task without any reference to personal preferences because it is there to be done and so is a manifestation of the Will of God.
It is Elizabeth Leseur settling down each day to do the household accounts quite perfectly (when she would much rather have been in church) and saying, “The duties of my station come before, everything else.”
It is Brother Lawrence taking his turn in the kitchen, and Saint Francis de Sales taking the burden of a difficult diocese and saying, “I have now little time for prayer but I do what is the same.”
The fruits of the Spirit get less and less showy as we go on. Faithfulness means continuing quietly with the job we have been given, in the situation where we have been placed; not yielding to the restless desire for change. It means tending the lamp quietly for God without wondering how much longer it has got to go on.
This is an excerpt from a book The Fruits of the Spirit by Evelyn Underhill. If you would like to buy this book please click here.